Telefónica Deutschland and Blue Planet Demonstrate How AI Agents Can Accelerate 5G Network Slicing Service Design
- Joint proof of concept shows how agentic AI can reduce complex service design from weeks to minutes
- Collaboration builds on Telefónica Deutschland’s Multi‑Domain Service Orchestration (MDSO) program
- Results highlight the potential of AI‑driven operations for next‑generation B2B services
Telefónica Deutschland and Blue Planet, a division of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN), have successfully completed a joint proof of concept (PoC) exploring the use of AI agents to accelerate the design and fulfillment of advanced 5G network slicing services. The initiative demonstrates how agentic AI can help communications service providers address the growing operational complexity of next‑generation services while significantly reducing service design time.
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As part of Telefónica Deutschland’s ongoing transformation of its operations support systems (OSS) and its journey toward higher levels of network autonomy, the company is focused on industrializing service and network deployment through its Service & Network Factory. A key enabler of this transformation is Telefónica Deutschland’s Multi‑Domain Service Orchestration (MDSO) program, which provides end‑to‑end orchestration across network domains and underpins the introduction of new, complex services.
Within this context, 5G network slicing represents a critical use case: a high‑value B2B service characterized by complex specifications, evolving standards, and a strong dependence on expert knowledge. Designing and deploying slicing services efficiently is essential to reducing time to market while maintaining service quality and consistency across domains.
To address these challenges, Telefónica Deutschland collaborated with Blue Planet to test how AI agents could support engineers throughout the service lifecycle—from intent‑based design to catalog creation and fulfillment. The PoC leveraged Blue Planet AI Studio, an OSS‑native platform for building and running AI agents, integrated directly with Telefónica Deutschland’s existing MDSO environment. This ensured that AI‑driven automation was embedded into real operational workflows rather than operating as a standalone experiment.
The results of the PoC were significant. Tasks that previously required highly specialized expertise and manual effort—such as defining slice specifications and generating standards‑compliant service payloads—were completed in minutes instead of weeks. By abstracting complex standards and parameters into AI agents and reusing catalog elements managed through MDSO, the solution improved design speed, consistency, and quality, while reducing errors through guided, repeatable processes.
"Designing and delivering 5G network slicing services at scale is inherently complex and places significant demands on engineering teams," said Eva Ulicevic, Director of Architecture, Strategy and Technology Enablement at Telefónica Deutschland. "This proof of concept has shown that AI agents, when integrated with our MDSO framework, can meaningfully simplify service design, reduce lead times, and help democratize expert knowledge. It is an important validation of how intent‑based, AI‑driven approaches can support our evolution toward more autonomous operations, allowing us to provide additional and enhanced customer services."
The PoC also reflects Telefónica’s broader vision for AI-native operations and increasing network autonomy. "This proof of concept supports Telefónica’s ambition to advance towards higher levels of network autonomy, reinforcing the role of AI in transforming service and network operations. Moving beyond traditional automation requires evolving operational systems into AI-native platforms that can progressively increase autonomy," said Javier García, Head of Core IT at Telefónica Global CTIO.
From Blue Planet’s perspective, the collaboration highlights the value of combining agentic AI with a mature orchestration foundation. "Telefónica Deutschland brought a clear operational vision and a robust MDSO program to this collaboration," said Joe Cumello, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Blue Planet. "By building AI agents directly into their orchestration workflows using Blue Planet AI Studio, this PoC demonstrates how service providers can accelerate innovation while maintaining control, standards compliance, and operational rigor."
Beyond the immediate outcomes, the PoC provides valuable insight into how AI‑driven automation can complement multi‑domain orchestration to support the future evolution of network and service operations. By validating the role of AI agents within the MDSO framework, Telefónica Deutschland and Blue Planet have established a foundation for scaling this approach to additional use cases and enabling more dynamic, intent‑based services.
About Telefónica Deutschland
Telefónica Deutschland is a leading full-service provider of telecommunications services for residential and business customers. The portfolio of the core brand O2 and various secondary and partner brands includes not only traditional telephone and Internet connections, but also innovative digital services in the areas of the Internet of Things, security, entertainment, and data analysis. In mobile communications, Telefónica Germany serves over 35 million mobile connections (as of December 31, 2025). The company is a leading mobile communications provider in the consumer market and in the market for innovative partner offerings, as well as a rapidly growing provider in the solutions business for corporate customers. The company's powerful and award-winning mobile network reaches more than 99 percent of the population. In the fixed-line network, Telefónica Germany offers its customers leading technological diversity and geographical availability in Germany. In fiscal year 2025, the company generated revenue of €8.2 billion and employed 7,650 people at the end of 2025. The company is majority-owned by the Spanish telecommunications group Telefónica S.A., based in Madrid, one of the world's largest telecommunications groups.
About Blue Planet
Blue Planet empowers communications service providers (CSPs) to be more software-driven, digital businesses with the industry’s first truly cloud-native operations support systems (OSS) platform. The Blue Planet intelligent automation portfolio helps CSPs automate network and service operations to speed the introduction of new services across any network domain or vendor. A division of Ciena and a key provider for many of the world’s leading CSPs, Blue Planet brings unparalleled expertise in accelerating digital transformation. For updates on Blue Planet, visit http://www.blueplanet.com/.
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